New African Spirituality

Learn The Secrets To Win At Life

Obatala The Father of All Orishas

For a long period of time, we lived in
a world that was strictly physical. We believed that if we couldn’t
see it, touch it, or smell it, that it just didn’t exist. Of course
the mystics always knew that there was an invisible world. They
knew about energy and quantum physics long before any scientist had
ever looked through a microscope.

We can see this in many of the creation stories in the Yoruba
pantheon. Obatala, the father of all orishas; is also known as the
deity of purity, peace, and creation. He descended from the heavens
onto to earth on an iron chain. This story can be interpreted in
two ways. It can symbolize the concept of manifestation. It can
also represent the biological makeup of human beings. Today, we
understand that DNA is a genetic code that houses information that
is past down from one generation to the next.
practitoners in the Yoruba religion seemed to have understood this
concept as well. When examined under a microscope DNA looks very
much like a chain or a double sided helix. Today, scientists
understand that a person’s DNA code is pretty much set in stone.
However, there are external factors that influence the behaviors of
DNA.

Epigenetics instructs DNA on how to behave. It works, very much
like a light switch, turning our DNA codes on and off. If we are
overeating, epigenetics will instruct DNA to increase fat cells. If
we are dieting, epigenetics will instruct our DNA to shrink fat
cells. It can instruct our bodies to increase the production of
cancer cells, or decrease cancer cells. A great way to think of
epigenetics is to imagine that your body runs like a corporation.
There is an executive board, which responds to the external
economical environment. There are the middlemen, line managers who
supervise the workers. Lastly, there are the workers, who don’t
think. They just take orders without thought or question.

The corporate executives decide that they need to lay-off workers
because of a recession. The executives don’t do the dirty work;
they send the middleman or the line managers to do the firing.
Workers get laid off, and the ones that remain are doing twice the
work. The same thing happens in our body. We are the executives of
our bodies and how we respond to our environment has a direct
effect on us. Feelings of scarcity induce high levels of stress. We
innately send signals to the middlemen to instruct our cells to
stop working at optimum levels. As a result, other parts of our
body have to pick up the slack. This is why people who are severely
depressed are sluggish and lethargic.

In a nutshell, our thoughts can make us sick, or better. Positive
thoughts, feelings, and actions allow the body to work at optimum
levels. We need to understand the adverse consequences of negative
thinking. We must call upon Obatala, the orisha of purity, wisdom,
and whiteness to cleanse our negative thoughts, so we can be pure
again and realign with nature.

Yamaya
Cruz is an author of New Thought. She has traveled to the deepest
parts of Africa to learn the secrets of the Zulus. She has studied
with a shamanic midwife from South America, learned about the
chakra system from a seasoned Yogi and studied the secrets of
Tantra from a Greek master. She currently holds a Masters degree in
Leadership & Management, and works as a spiritual/life coach
and intuitive healer. Yamaya Cruz is also an expert author,
novelist, and student of Ifa.